Richard Bowen - Promotion

Promotion

During this time Bowen made studies of mathematics, astronomy and surveying, before returning to serve under his old patron, now Rear-Admiral Sir John Jervis, in 1790 during the Spanish Armament. He finally received his long-awaited commission as lieutenant on 21 September 1790, and an appointment to Jervis's flagship HMS Prince. Bowen's friend Robert Calder then requested his services aboard the 64-gun HMS Stately. Stately was paid off after the easing of tensions and Bowen applied to the Navy Board for a posting. The Board gave him command of three transports in the Third Fleet to resupply the colony at Port Jackson, New South Wales. He departed England in March 1791 and reached Port Jackson in July that year. There the Lieutenant-Governor, Philip Gidley King, decided that the rice supply was insufficient for the needs of the colony and despatched Bowen to Bengal to acquire more. Bowen set off on the voyage, dropping King and his family at Norfolk Island on the way, and sailed east past New Caledonia, the Isle of Pines and Terra Arsacides, a route never before sailed. He also sailed a never-before navigated passage, between Borneo and Paragua into the South China Sea. From there he passed through the Straits of Malacca, reaching Bengal in January 1792. After acquiring provisions he made his way back to Port Jackson. He picked up Governor Arthur Phillip in December and returned him to Britain, arriving at Spithead in May 1793. By then he had completed two long voyages, one of them around the world, in a transport vessel.